30 PART oNE • THE AmERiCAN sYsTEm
Congress. Due to a lack of resources, the Continental Congress was forced to disband the
army after the Revolutionary War, even in the face of serious Spanish and British military
threats.shays’ Rebellion and the Need to Revise the Articles. Because of the weaknesses
of the Articles of Confederation, the central government could do little to maintain peace
and order in the new nation. The states bickered among themselves and increasingly taxed
each other’s goods. By 1784, the country faced a serious economic depression. Banks
were calling in old loans and refusing to make new ones. People who could not pay their
debts were often thrown into debtors’ prison.
In August 1786, mobs of musket-bearing farmers led by former revolutionary captain
Daniel Shays seized county courthouses and disrupted the trials of debtors in Springfield,
Massachusetts. Shays and his men then launched an attack on the federal arsenal at
Springfield, but they were repulsed. Shays’ Rebellion demonstrated that the central gov-
ernment could not protect the citizenry from armed rebellion or provide adequately for the
public welfare. The rebellion spurred the nation’s political leaders to action.THE CoNsTiTuTioNAl CoNvENTioN
The Virginia legislature called for a meeting of all the states to be held at Annapolis,
Maryland, on September 11, 1786—ostensibly to discuss commercial problems only. It was
evident to those in attendance (including Alexander Hamilton and James Madison) that the
national government had serious weaknesses that had to be addressed if it was to survive.
Among the important problems to be solved were the relationship between the states and
the central government, the powers of the national legislature, the need for executive lead-
ership, and the establishment of policies for economic stability. The result of this meeting
was a petition to the Continental Congress for a general convention to meet in Philadelphia
in May 1787 “to consider the exigencies [needs] of the union.”
The designated date for the opening of the convention at Philadelphia, now known
as the Constitutional Convention, was May 14, 1787. Few of the delegates had actually
arrived in Philadelphia by that time, however, so the opening was delayed. The convention
formally began in the East Room of the Pennsylvania State House on May 25.^8 Fifty-five
of the seventy-four delegates chosen for the convention actually attended. (Of those fifty-
five, only about forty played active roles at the convention.) Rhode Island was the only
state that refused to send delegates.Factions among the delegates
We know much about the proceedings at the convention because James Madison kept a
daily, detailed personal journal. A majority of the delegates were strong nationalists—they
wanted a central government with real power, unlike the central government under the
Articles of Confederation. George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were among those
who sought a stronger government.
Among the nationalists, some— including Alexander Hamilton—went as far as to
support monarchy. Another important group of nationalists was of a more democratic
stripe. Led by James Madison of Virginia and James Wilson of Pennsylvania, these repub-LO3: Discuss the most
important compromises reached
at the Constitutional Convention
and the basic structure of the
resulting government.
- This was the same room in which the Declaration of Independence had been signed eleven years
earlier. The State House was later named Independence Hall.
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